Granola: My AI tool of the year

Granola: Because Leadership Isn’t About Note-Taking

There are so many AI tools flying around these days — and most either feel gimmicky or produce output that is and behaves as an add-on. Take, for example, Zoom transcripts. It’s an add-on to the Zoom feature of being in a meeting. They’ve added transcription and meeting summaries that, most of the time, fall flat. The transcripts aren’t customizable — generic and fluff.

Otter is a transcription tool that transcribes meetings, and it then adds AI to give you meeting summaries or chat features during the conversation. I used to love it, but as an add-on, it felt generic. 

Slap on AI to give the users added “value,” then hike the price or add features that can now be sold. The AI tools that I love add value on their own. They were built to deliver value, not repurposing their tool to include AI now. 

One tool I genuinely rely on every day delivers value every moment, and that’s why I love it. It isn’t a transcription tool, although it does that too. It doesn’t save you time, although it does that too. It’s a personal assistant for your meetings.

Imagine being in a meeting and wondering, “I lost the thread of what they said, and they just asked if I had a question — what can I ask?” Granola will tell you what to ask. Granola is about making the biggest impact you can during and after meetings. Plus it helps me stay present and productive in meetings and between meetings without losing track of anything important.

WHAT IS IT?

Granola is essentially an AI‑powered notepad for meetings that transcribes conversations, enhances notes, and turns messy discussions into structured, useful summaries. It works across major platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Slack, and more, and it’s built for people who live in back‑to‑back meetings or client calls.

What does it replace:

OTTER.AI, Zoom transcripts, Motion. AI, Fathom notetaker, or any note-taker.

What Makes Granola Different as an AI tool

✔️ Bot‑Free Audio Capture Unlike many AI meeting assistants that join calls as a visible bot, Granola captures audio from your device directly. That means no awkward bot avatars on your video screen and fewer privacy concerns.

✔️ Privacy that is yours You can opt to let your meeting notes train it’s AI or not. It’s your choice. So that means if you have client calls, those sensitive notes are not floating in the ether or in spaces you don’t control.

✔️ AI‑Enhanced Notes That Match Your Focus Whether you prefer to jot down your own thoughts or let the app handle everything, Granola blends your notes with AI‑transcribed context and turns them into polished summaries with clear decisions, next steps, and action items. 

✔️ Custom Templates and Smart Structure You can apply templates for different meeting types (like 1:1s, customer interviews, or team standups), so your notes are instantly organized and consistent across conversations.

✔️ Search and Follow‑Up Made Easy After a meeting, you can search session transcripts, extract follow‑up items, draft emails, and even ask the AI questions like “What did so‑and‑so commit to doing?” Granola pulls answers from the transcripts for you in a single meeting or over multiple meetings.

Why It’s Been a Game Changer for Me

Before I started using Granola, I was always toggling between handwriting, typing, listening, and trying to remember points from earlier in a conversation. That meant I was half-present and often had to spend extra time later stitching notes together for summary notes.

With Granola:

• I stay fully engaged during the meeting

• I walk away with a clean, usable summary right after it ends (in my preferred format)

• I spend less time on follow‑ups and clarification emails

I sometimes think of it not as an AI meeting assistant but as an AI meeting partner — the kind that catches what you might’ve missed and gives it back to you in a way that helps you act instead of react.

The Granola Magic

Here’s how I use granola as a coach: Granola listens to my phone or video call, transcribing every detail and hiding it from me — do you know how distracting it is to watch words populate as they are spoken while you're in the middle of a conversation?

If I need the transcript to see what was just spoken, I can easily unhide the transcript. Keep it hidden because this is where the magic happens. While you’re in your meeting or client conversation, you can ask, “How would you sum up what just happened?” and voila, you have your summary in an instant so that you can make your move.

A feature I love about Granola is the recipes. You can apply a meeting template recipe to any meeting. 

For my coaching calls, I like to summarize all my notes as follows

• FOCUS

• MEETING DISCOVERIES

• TAKE-AWAYS

• COACH GROWTH (STRENGTHS & GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES)

• UNDER THE SURFACE DYNAMICS (what happened that you might have missed - EYE-opening!)

  
  

I even have a recipe for creating follow-up emails that are warm, insightful, and packed with value, pulling out coaching arc conversations and statistics about your coaching to help you improve your coaching. I often share my recipes, so let me know if you’re interested in them.

Who It’s Best For

Granola works beautifully for:

• Anyone who attends, runs, or participates in meetings

• Executives, founders, and leaders with packed calendars

• Consultants and coaches who need accurate records of client discussions

• Teams that need consistent documentation across meetings

• Anyone who wants to reduce cognitive overhead so they can focus on strategy rather than note maintenance

Bottom Line

If your days are filled with discussions, decisions, and follow‑ups, having a tool that helps you capture insights without distraction isn’t just convenient — it’s strategic. Granola does that in a way that respects how you like to work and helps you actually use your meeting output.

Try it out on your next call and see if it changes the way you meet. It did for me.

Ready to try Granola?

Use the link to try Granola , and if you can’t live without it like me, take advantage of a free month of Granola with the link.

Final Take

Granola isn’t just a note-taker—it’s a powerhouse. It’s what freedom feels like when flow is restored to meetings.

If you're tired of glitchy transcripts on platforms that compromise privacy, Granola is the tool you didn’t know you couldn't live without.

Use this link to get Granola free for your first month.

Additional Resources

I’m on a mission to change the way high performance is lived—everywhere it’s rewarded, and everywhere it costs us. I’m Dr. Lizette Warner, COO of Trust & Leadership and one of the Top 4% certified executive coaches globally.

You'll find me working at the intersection of neuroscience, strategic leadership, and executive well-being.

Follow the Newsletter

Join the community of high performers learning how nervous system regulation elevates your game, improves your efficienty and lowers your level of stress.

Join The Conversation

The Conversation on Rise to Lead is a monthly deep dive into a single career acceleration principle or framework. Learn more here.  

Get Your Blueprint. Your Blueprint is your sprint to identify exactly what's been blocking you at the level of your nervous system and get a measurable and personalized growth plan to overcome it. 

Leadership Development for your Organization We deliver measurable ROI based leadership development for your organization. Get in touch to discuss options.